Fractal Design Define Mini

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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AckeDman
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Re: Fractal Design Define Mini

Post by AckeDman » Sat Jul 14, 2012 7:14 am

kuzzia wrote:
AckeDman wrote:Has anyone tried HDD suspension in the 3,5" bays!? Im going to buy this board with the Asus Gene Z mATX mb but hdd vibration might be a issue with the rubber gromets so im thinking of doing hdd suspension. Will the 3,5" bays work for this or is it too tight to get good decoupling from the frame/cage?
I've seen someone here at SPCR post pictures of hard drives suspended in the 3,5" bays. Look around and you'll probably find it. You could also use 2,5" bays or suspend the 3,5" drive in the 5,25" bay. Perhaps using an aftermarket suspension solution?
I did a search and found 1 person that did a decent suspension in a define R3 but im not sure if the HDD bay has exactly the same size as the define mini. I have WD 3,5" and the after market suspension are for 3,5" HDD in a 5,25" bay. I see you did a nice suspension of a 3,5" hdd in your H2s 5,25".

JJ
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Re: Fractal Design Define Mini

Post by JJ » Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:16 pm

I received my Define Mini yesterday. Should have the remaining parts to build the system by early next week. For the most part, it's a nicely designed case of pretty good quality for the price.

But, man, what were they thinking when they designed the front intake fans? (There are two 120mm fan positions, with one fan supplied in the upper position.) Can these things actually move any air? First, they're each behind a filter. That's fine. Then immediately in front of the filter is a slotted door that is at most 60% open. And then they're behind the completely solid front case door.

I just can't see the reason for the slotted inner doors in front of the filters. The front case door won't normally be left open, so they're really not needed for aesthetics, and all they can do is impede airflow and/or create air noise.

Then, there are nice big ventilation slots that run from top to bottom on either side of the front panel, but these are _behind_ the plane of the fan intakes and they don't even vent the small space between the front case door and the inner doors/filters.

I just don't get it.

Das_Saunamies
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Re: Fractal Design Define Mini

Post by Das_Saunamies » Thu Jul 19, 2012 10:53 pm

JJ wrote:But, man, what were they thinking when they designed the front intake fans? (There are two 120mm fan positions, with one fan supplied in the upper position.) Can these things actually move any air? First, they're each behind a filter. That's fine. Then immediately in front of the filter is a slotted door that is at most 60% open. And then they're behind the completely solid front case door.

I just can't see the reason for the slotted inner doors in front of the filters. The front case door won't normally be left open, so they're really not needed for aesthetics, and all they can do is impede airflow and/or create air noise.

Then, there are nice big ventilation slots that run from top to bottom on either side of the front panel, but these are _behind_ the plane of the fan intakes and they don't even vent the small space between the front case door and the inner doors/filters.

I just don't get it.
I agree on the "fan doors". Their functionality is questionable and, considering the side vent design, almost completely aesthetic.

And speaking of the side vents, it's quite alright if they don't vent the "door chamber"; this avoids dust buildup and leaves a more pleasant exterior, unlike my old P180. Taking apart my Define Mini's front panel I can see the dust the intake filters are gathering has left but a faint trace on the fan doors, and piles in the "vent space". The vent-to-fan air path design seems a poor choice, but this is a compact case and Fractal decided to make this sort of compromise in place of something else (something smarter, if we are being mean). The case is already quite long, so if another 10 mm was added for fan clearance, it would have made it a full 500 mm. More recessed fans would have pressed the HDD cages deeper inside and possibly in the way of long video cards, perhaps on top of the motherboard even - in the way of cable routing holes for sure.

The intake is my only major gripe with this case too, but so far it has provided adequate cooling and thus not been an actual problem. The poor intake is of course reflected in higher HDD temperatures in my case, with the 6400AAKS reaching over 40 °C on a regular basis (hovering around 42). In the previous P180 it would happily go about any business mostly under that figure, certainly so when not defragmenting etc.

Time will tell how the Fractal fans like the restriction. One of them had a rattle from the start, and it doesn't seem to get any better being stuck behind that awful little door.

Fractal Design
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Re: Fractal Design Define Mini

Post by Fractal Design » Thu Jul 19, 2012 11:07 pm

JJ wrote:I received my Define Mini yesterday. Should have the remaining parts to build the system by early next week. For the most part, it's a nicely designed case of pretty good quality for the price.

But, man, what were they thinking when they designed the front intake fans? (There are two 120mm fan positions, with one fan supplied in the upper position.) Can these things actually move any air? First, they're each behind a filter. That's fine. Then immediately in front of the filter is a slotted door that is at most 60% open. And then they're behind the completely solid front case door.

I just can't see the reason for the slotted inner doors in front of the filters. The front case door won't normally be left open, so they're really not needed for aesthetics, and all they can do is impede airflow and/or create air noise.

Then, there are nice big ventilation slots that run from top to bottom on either side of the front panel, but these are _behind_ the plane of the fan intakes and they don't even vent the small space between the front case door and the inner doors/filters.

I just don't get it.

Hi,

The main path for the air is between the filters and the slotted inner doors, towards the sides of the front panel, not actually through the inner doors. There is around 8mm space between the filter and the main surface on the slotted door.

In all our tests, except with really high-speed fans, this allows enough flow without creating excessive noise. Of course, please test it with your own components, but we believe that you will have a much better temperature to noise relationship when the front fan is spinning.

Regards,
Fractal Design

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